Penelope: “Now don’t carp, Miss Van Tyck. You love her as much as we all do. ‘Like her,’ indeed! I detest the phrase. Werther said when asked how he liked Charlotte, ‘What sort of creature must he be who merely liked her; whose whole heart and senses were not entirely absorbed by her!’ Some one asked me lately how I ‘liked’ Ossian.”
Atlas: “Don’t introduce Ossian, Werther and Charlotte into this delightful breakfast chat, I beseech you; the most tiresome trio that ever lived. If they were travelling with us, how they would jar! Ossian would tear the scenery in tatters with his apostrophes, Werther would make love to Mrs. Jack, and Charlotte couldn’t cut an English household loaf with a hatchet. Keep to Egeria,—though if one cannot stop at liking her, she is a dangerous subject.”
Jack: “Don’t imagine from these panegyrics that, to the casual observer, Egeria is anything more than a nice girl. The deadly qualities that were mentioned only appeal to the sympathetic eye (which you have not), and the susceptible heart (which is not yours), and after long acquaintance (which you can’t have, for she stays only a week). Tommy, you can meet the charmer at the station; your sister will pack up, and I’ll pay the bills and make arrangements for the journey.”
Jack Copley (when left alone with his spouse): “Kitty, I wonder, why you invited Egeria to travel in the same party with Atlas.”
Mrs. Jack (fencing): “Pooh! Atlas is safe anywhere.”
Jack: “He is a man.”
Mrs. Jack: “No; he is a reformer.”
Jack: “Even reformers fall in love.”
Mrs. Jack: “Not unless they can find a woman to reform. Egeria is too nearly perfect to attract Atlas; besides, what does it matter, anyway?”
Jack: “It matters a good deal if it makes him unhappy; he is too good a fellow.”